Hiashi's chapter. Sorry if it gets repetitive, but I find that it gets the point across effectively, more so than I could ever manage in paragraph form :)
Oh, something rather major does happen in this chapter, near the end. Finally, this is living up to the name as "sequel." :)
From the beginning, he only ever saw her flaws.
He saw her hide behind his robes and was disappointed.
He saw her blush shyly when meeting strangers and could only hope that she'd be more presentable when meeting the Hokage.
He heard her stutter when she was scared and felt the beginnings of hopelessness start to build in him.
He saw her slumped form during Hizashi's funeral and felt bitter.
He saw her weak fighting stance and snapped angrily at her.
He saw her outreached arms, hoping for a piggyback ride, and ignored her.
He saw her prick her finger on her first kunai and swatted her away, telling her that she should be strong and endure.
He saw her writing a love letter and burned it with a Katon jutsu.
That was the first time he had ever seen her cry.
And then he couldn't see her, couldn't face her. He pushed her away and wallowed in his own guilt, his own anger.
--
When he heard the rumor that Hatake Kakashi was training his daughter, he shook his head, not believing a word.
When he heard the rumor that Hinata had beaten Hyuuga Kaizashi in a clan spar with a well-placed suiton jutsu, he scoffed in disbelief.
When he heard that Uzumaki Naruto's sensei was Hatake Kakashi, he sighed, knowing that Kakashi never had a chance in taming the boy.
When he heard from the Branch family that Neji was in the hospital recovering from internal damage, he'd wondered which Hyuuga had done the deed. When he heard that it was Hinata, Hiashi couldn't believe his ears.
When he saw with his own eyes, the Uzumaki boy take down Neji with wonderfully executed techniques, Hiashi had to take back his words from a few months past.
Hatake Kakashi had done a wonderful job.
--
When it was Hinata's fourteenth birthday, the clan elders approached her without him knowing and demanded to know whether or not she was going to take the position as Clan Head.
When Hiashi heard that Hinata had replied with, "How can I take it when it has always rightfully been mine's?" Hiashi felt the beginnings of pride begin to build inside him.
The stutters in her voice hadn't been relayed by his faithful left hand man, Ko.
When the decision came to give Hanabi the title, Hinata took it in with a small smile. When she left the compound, once and for all, she bowed towards him and said, "Thank you."
--
When he went to the next Chuunin Exam Finals, he saw, for the first time in his life, the strength of his first-born daughter.
She was graceful, she was intelligent. She kept her opponent on his toes and forced him back with tactical maneuvers that made the audience sit on the edge of their seats with bated breaths.
When she was named victor, Hiashi knew, without a doubt, that Hyuuga Hinata was now a Chuunin.
--
One day during a marketplace weekend, Hiashi traveled down the streets, wondering what it was that Hanabi had asked him to buy for her.
That was the first time he saw a man's eyes travel up and down his first-born daughter's figure with lustful eyes.
Rage was not the first emotion that crossed his mind; rather, it was pride. Pride that his daughter was indeed growing up healthily, even without the Hyuuga clan providing for her. The pride was quickly replaced with a healthy dose of rage when he saw the lusting man start to approach her.
Before the clueless girl could turn around, he already had the man by the neck and pinned to the alley wall two blocks away from her.
A menacing threat was quickly delivered, something Hiashi vaguely remembered had to deal with "You are not a Hyuuga, but I can quickly brand you with a Caged Bird Seal if I ever see you look at my daughter ever again."
The rest of the month had passed like that, many men making moves towards her, only to be repelled by his own threats. Hiashi had to mentally admonish his daughter for growing so beautiful.
His constant prowling ceased when he heard that Hatake Kakashi had come back from his year-long mission. Now all his attention was singularly spent on the masked nin and what his intentions towards his daughter were.
Hatake Kakashi was, so far, the most likely to see his forehead branded with the Hyuuga clan's Caged Bird Seal.
Especially since he dared to sit in front of him and ask for Hinata's hand in marriage nonchalantly, almost as if he were commenting on how hot the weather had been in Konoha lately.
--
"I do believe I heard you wrong, Kakashi-san. I must not have heard you correctly, because you can't possibly be asking for Hinata's hand in mar-"
"Oh, no, Hiashi-sama, you heard me quite right." The silver-haired man smiled at him from behind his mask.
Hiashi's forehead twitched. Was this man—infamous as Copy Nin Kakashi, in-running for the next Hokage, feared through out all of the Shinobi Continent—an idiot? He must be, if he hadn't heard the thinly veiled threat in his question.
"I think you heard me wrong, Kakashi. You can't possibly marry Hinata. At all."
The man, currently slouched in his seat, stood up ramrod straight, his black eye regarding him quietly. Hiashi, too, stood up.
If this man wanted a fight, then he was going to be faced with the power of the Hyu-
"What did I tell you, Hinata?" said Kakashi as he slouched slightly, his hands sliding into his pockets.
Hinata? Hinata was here?
Hiashi activated his byakugan and scanned the area. He gasped when he saw that Hinata was sitting outside the window, sipping iced tea with Hanabi.
"H-Hinata?" he whispered hoarsely.
His daughter's head whipped around and she thrust the cup into Hanabi's hands before entering through the window.
"Hello, Father," she greeted quietly as she straightened up beside Kakashi.
Hiashi couldn't believe his eyes. His… his daughter, who had been banished from the clan… was here.
"Hinata… Why are you here?"
A small smile flitted across Hinata's face before she breathed in deeply and looked at him, straight in the eyes.
White, Hyuuga eyes stared into painfully familiar lavender ones.
"You come here because… you want something," he stated, knowing that this wasn't a friendly visit.
His first-born daughter shook her head. "No, actually we…" Hiashi flinched at the word. Hinata, too wrapped up in her controlled breathing, missed it, but Kakashi saw it and actually had the nerve to smile slightly. "We came here to ask you something," she said quickly.
Hiashi sank into his desk chair and covered his eyes with his hand, already knowing the question.
"I come here asking for Hinata's hand in marriage, Hiashi-sama. Will you give us your blessings?"
"If you are happy, Hinata," he said quietly as he closed his eyes tightly, "Then I will do anything you ask."
He heard his daughter gasp lightly and looked at her, utterly surprised to see her with her hand over her mouth.
"What's wrong?" he asked in concern.
"She's shocked beyond belief, Hiashi-sama," supplied Kakashi.
He narrowed his eyes at the increasingly cheeky man before turning to Hinata.
"You are my daughter, even if we have not shared the same household for over six years." Hiashi let a small smile cross his usually passive face. "I give you my blessings, Hinata, Kakashi."
Hinata stared at him, the beginnings of tears in her eyes. "Thank you," she whispered.
--
He had not been the best father in his lifetime. His family was in pieces, divided by a ridge that was unbreakable. He had handled his family with distant hands, only there to swat when they did wrong, never there to offer a few words of advice to lift their spirits.
What kind of all-seeing eyes would let a family fall so far into ruin?
His life was filled with bad decisions, all made because of his foolishness, his stubborness.
Today, though, for the first time, in a long time, he thinks that he made the right decision.
It's hard to say that it's not the right decision when he sees the way Hinata slings her arms around Kakashi's neck and stands on her toes to lightly brush her lips against Kakashi's masked ones.
The only thing he regrets is that he turned on his byakugan to observe the newly-engaged couple on their way out of the Hyuuga compound.
'They're in a public place, for Kami's sake.'
I hold a firm belief that Hiashi isn't as harsh as so many fanfiction writers make him out to be. I also believe that a cruel Hiashi makes an interesting plot as well :) But I also love it when fanfiction writers write about how Hiashi regrets how he's treated her.
Anyways, Father!Hiashi for this fic, and, wow! They're getting married :)